Human error led to fatal well explosion in Greene County, DEP says

Human error by an inexperienced natural gas well worker likely led to a February explosion and fatal fire on a Marcellus Shale drilling site in Greene County, the state Department of Environmental Protection said.

The findings were part of a report released Wednesday after a months-long DEP investigation into the incident on the Chevron Corp.-owned well site in Dunkard that resulted in the death of 27-year-old contractor Ian McKee.

State investigators said a Cameron International Corp. contractor — called a "greenhat" because of his inexperience — was not properly supervised when he was directed to loosen equipment from portions of the wellhead in preparing it for production days before the Feb. 11 blast.

Several days later, one of the "lock pins manipulated" was ejected from the well, allowing gas to escape from the well and catch fire, investigators said.

The "greenhat" worker, whom investigators determined had not been trained on such a procedure, was not named in the report.

The state's findings also include recommendations for Chevron, including the creation of a "specialized response protocol." The review criticized on-site communications between Chevron and the DEP and between the company and the media.

The department said Chevron has inspected other wells with similar installations as the Dunkard site and issued guidelines. A company spokeswoman did not immediately return an email and phone message seeking comment.

Chevron spokeswoman Lee Ann Wainwright said: "We are reviewing the DEP reports, and we look forward to the opportunity to discuss them with the DEP in the near future.

"Chevron is committed to safe operations. We look forward to continuing to work with the Pennsylvania DEP and OSHA in order to fully understand what happened with this incident, and we are determined to prevent it from happening again."

Sharon Sloan, spokeswoman for Houston-based Cameron, said she has no knowledge of the report and could not comment.

McKee was on the well with a crew of 19 other contractors when it exploded, igniting flames that were fed by leaking natural gas for five days before they finally extinguished themselves.

His parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Chevron Corp.'s local subsidiary, Chevron Appalachia LLC, in June.

For two days after the explosion, Chevron refused to allow state investigators onto the property, in violation of oil and gas laws, the DEP said earlier this year. The company received nine citations for that and other violations.

So far, no fines have been issued to Chevron. John Poister, a spokesman for DEP's southwestern district, said the DEP was awaiting this report to hash out the details of the entire incident with Chevron and begin negotiations over penalties.

The agency also has drafted new emergency protocols for its staff based on recommendations from the report and will be training DEP officials over the coming months.